I'm open for suggestions... The times that I've tried chocolate tea either alone or mixed w/something, it has a bitterness to it. I don't know if I simply don't like it or if I'm doing something wrong. I use boiling water & steep for 4 min.

In my experience, chocolate is one of the more difficult flavors to reproduce in a flavored tea. Some are just downright awful. I really doubt it's anything you're doing in the brewing...it's most likely the tea itself.

That being said, I've been brewing a lot of Adagio's Valentine these days. It's a chocolate-cherry flavor, and it's a good one. I've had more success when I use 190ºF-200ºF water for about 4 minutes than when I use boiling.

Adagio's Valentine & chocolate mint are about the only chocolate teas I've liked. The flavor was very subtle. I purchased a tin of chocolate tea as I like making my own combos but haven't hit the nail on the head yet.

Thanx for the tip on lowering the water temp. Will have to try that next time.

For the chocolate tea sample that I have from Adagio, I found that it tasted better with a pinch of peppermint and a little bit of sugar. I used 1 tsp of chocolate tea with 1/2 tsp or less of peppermint with boiling water for about 4 minutes. I added a few sugar crystals too. It ended up tasting like a peppermint patty, heavily minty, but with a dark chocolate aftertaste.

For Valentines tea, I've been using boiling water for 4 minutes and adding a splash of either soy or almond milk. I've found that the milk brings out the chocolate covered strawberry flavor. It also gives the tea a lightly creamy, decadent taste that makes it feel like I am having desert in a tea mug.

olivierco wrote:I have never understood the need to drink a tea with a chocolate taste.

For me (real) chocolate has a too strong flavor that annihilates the taste of the tea.

It's something similar for me. Besides the strong taste, there's also a range of texture expected with anything chocolate I have. And there's also the purity of real chocolate; not that I can necessarily tell every time, but when it's not real , I usually don't enjoy it as much. Chocolate needs to be thick, hopefully creamy, and full of flavor.

Cinnamon Kitty wrote:I've found that the milk brings out the chocolate covered strawberry flavor. It also gives the tea a lightly creamy, decadent taste that makes it feel like I am having desert in a tea mug.

Ditto. Ditto, ditto, ditto.

I'm very much anti-milk, but one day I brewed the Valentine's a shade too long and it got very tannic, and tannic teas seem to get a little more complex when milk is added, so I tried it.

Wow.

Now Valentine's with milk is my guilty indulgence. I'm such a terrible purist.

Oh? Valentine's with milk? How interesting! I love milk in my tea, but so far it was limited to Assams. And I was not that impressed with Valentine's blend by itself - too flavored for me. Must try Valentine's with milk .

RussianSoul wrote:Oh? Valentine's with milk? How interesting! I love milk in my tea, but so far it was limited to Assams. And I was not that impressed with Valentine's blend by itself - too flavored for me. Must try Valentine's with milk .

Thanks Mary and Cinnamon Kitty!

Welcome! I actually learned the tip while reading the reviews people left for the tea on the Adagio site. I've learned that they sometimes have good brewing tips though it takes a while to go through all the reviews to find something useful.

I fully agree with Mary. Valentines is one of the two teas that I will ever put milk in. The other tea is Vanilla Rooibos, which doesn't need the milk to taste good, but I learned it tastes like sugar cookies when a bit of vanilla soy milk is added.

Wosret wrote:I was sceptical about chocolate tea, but I tried a chocolate mint tea and it was delicious! Perhaps they used chocolate mint leaf, rather than chocolate and mint? I was very pleasantly surprised.

Chocolate mint tea is one of the few flavored teas I like. It reminds me of Andes candy or a York Peppermint Patty w/o the guilt.

I'm on Weight Watchers and sometimes can't get past the urge for chocolate. I agree Valentine Tea definately fills that need for something sweet. But I have to have a touch of milk or soy in it. Yummy!!!